the new u.s. defense chief spots around capitol hill with some republicans worried that chuck hagel is a foreign policy maybe too soft for their liking. for world powers a way to rein in response to an offer to ease sanctions in return for. a lot of its atomic work as a secondary of top level nuclear talks begin in kazakhstan. and it reaches an economic and political death as the country's crucial general election delivers no . population massively rejecting. live from our studios here in moscow you're watching. the pentagon is bracing for

change chuck hagel will be sworn in as the new u.s. defense secretary later on wednesday he's come under fire from fellow republicans for past criticism of the iraq war and the jewish lobby and some believing he could also be too soft on iran but president obama firmly believes he's the right man for the job he's going to take on the courts. chuck hagel was confirmed by the senate fifty eight votes for forty one vote against a narrow vote as you can see but he can find in louisville all that apologizing and repenting behind and he had to do a lot of that to get the job she has been working very hard to tailor his views so as to please congress as a senator chuck hagel allowed himself to oppose the surge in iraq or to criticize israel's policies to oppose seeing war with iran as an option but as the president's nominee for the defense secretary position he backtracked on much of what he had said before and did it as as even his supporters noted in a rather clumsy way but in a way that showed how much he wanted the job and the whole confirmation process

including the attack campaign against him including the filibuster ten days ago showed how intolerant the u.s. congress is of alternative thought on foreign policy ten days ago the senators knew quite well that chuck hagel would eventually be confirmed but they chose to block the vote as many say just to make a point president obama certainly knew that chuck hagel confirmation process would not go as smoothly as say john kerry's but he nominated him anyway it looks like president obama too wanted to make a point this is his last term he doesn't have to think about getting reelected and it is a good time for him to make a point by the end of his first term the degree of war mongering in washington has escalated and we should the point where even the president said there's too much war talking going on now mandating chuck hagel could be his way over bringing it down a notch the president is also quite aware of the general war fatigue in the country but the u.s. congress doesn't seem to have that same war fatigue as chuck hagel confirmation

hearing showed quite to the contrary never too tired for war it seems one more thing it's saying important to point out here chuck hagel as defense secretary not be in a position to generate policies is there to fulfill the president's policies probably his main job will be managing the budget the biggest military budget in the world and figuring out where to make cuts but most of the questions senators asked during his confirmation hearing were about policies which is really not going to be in his field of work anyway. a foreign policy expert in and think the republican outcry over hate those nomination had more to do with p.r. than policy what it showed was that the stranger was willing to stick with hagel on this saying if you can judge someone by who's enemies are then i think this was a step back from the sort of confrontational policies that the u.s. has followed over the past ten twelve years the republicans are trying to do two

things one is they were destroying as many roadblocks as they could against obama and it's quite clear the republican party has made a decision that they're going to basically put their bodies on the railroad tracks and and jam up the works as much as possible this was an opportunity to do that but i think also it was a way to try to intimidate both. and the administration around the question of iran and around the question of israel so you know it was it was more public theater but a lot of politics the united states is public theater so i think that was the go. well iran is mulling over proposals made by six of the world's leading powers with regards to its controversial nuclear program well a second day of high level talks in kazakhstan tehran is expected to respond to an offer of an easing of sanctions in return for the closure of one of its plants in the west also once the country which claims its program is peaceful to stop

enriching uranium to twenty percent in exchange for the resumption of gold trade in some international banking on many nations including the u.s. are willing to give diplomacy another go israel is running out of patience to use force against tehran to stop it from building a bomb in middle east expert i mean this is the main decision makers on iran's nuclear and even present during the talks. if we look at the behavior if you look at the offers which were made i understand not the lifting of sanctions but revving of sanctions i think the pro israeli riot and the israeli club if i could say in general still has a significant amount of control and leverage on u.s. policy towards iran and five plus one talks and if this trend continues i don't think we could expect much because iran has made it clear that it will not bow down to talks or to pressures with a gun pointed at its head well i cannot rule out the possibility that

a lot on your whole government might actually go ahead with a unilateral strike although although that is extremely risky on all levels including how the american public might react to the scenario of israel dragging america into a confrontation i think the fundamental issue to look at to look at story is how bold obama could be in confronting benjamin had not on yahoo and confronting the pro israeli right in congress. and those nuclear talks continue it's ordinary iranians who are bearing the brunt of western imposed sanctions that problem medicine and food shortages are affecting thousands of people on the daily basis report no reports now in an effort to stop tehran's nuclear program western countries have used an arsenal of crippling economic in the interim america and its allies may have started a widespread medical crisis for the iranian people hundreds of thousands of

iranians with serious illnesses such as cancer diabetes and all three of us can't reportedly receive life's. because of international sanctions due to banking restrictions imposed by u.s. and european governments companies and hospitals in iran say they are on able to purchase pharmaceuticals from abroad now according to reports an estimated twenty three thousand iranians with hiv or aids have had their life saving medication restricted and medicine shortages for splits since specific blood disorders have allegedly resulted in many deaths already i spoke with an iranian american who recently visited iran bringing his grandmother meds for her diabetes and off rightists alex shams told me that the stock of pain relievers he packed was for a hospital the people who are the most vulnerable the people with the most special kind of cancer or illnesses they're the ones who right now are feeling the pinch the hospital that i brought medicine back there was

a cancer hospital and they're right now anticipating that they won't have tylenol in a short in a very short period of time that they're asking people to poor tylenol and bring it back. unfortunately that's how they're doing with tylenol i can't even begin to imagine what how their stockpiles of cancer medicine are looking right now the latest round of u.s. and european sanctions have caused iran's currency to plummet and oil revenue to slash which in turn has pushed up inflation critics say western countries have unleashed catastrophic economic warfare against ordinary iranian citizens so far producing all harm and no good they are weapons of mass destruction very very blunt instrument of use against nations sanctions the way that they're being propagated by the u.s. by europe and indeed to a certain degree by the u.n. against iran really very hopeful they don't achieve the or their objectives that

penalizing the old person and i think. it is totally unethical and immoral that we have to be very very care about what happens which is why i think a retooling and readjustment of the sanctions in this medical area is critical within a very short time because as this begins to spiral so too then does the black or. many experts warn that if the u.s. continues leaving a path of sanction destruction against iran this circumstance can manifest into a repeat of iraq in the ninety's arena porton i.r.t. new york well italy finds itself in something of a stone later often inconclusive general election left the country with no clear political leadership voters overwhelmingly rejected austerity policies with more than fifty percent of electorate voting for parties opposed to these measures let's

look at the exact figures for you now starts with the lower house of parliament the majority of seats were won by the center left democratic party and by peter luigi bersani he's closely followed by the billionaire tycoon and of course former prime minister silvio berlusconi whose political career is experiencing a revival despite ongoing sex scandals another very unexpected development was a massive success of the anti establishment five star movement led by comedian paid grillo the party managed to gain more than twenty five percent of the votes the biggest loser of the day turned out to be the current prime minister mario monti and his civic choice party which game dhoni about ten percent clear snub of his austerity policies and look at the senate. you know where the lead is well reversed with both skinny managing to snatch three seats more than deciding whether the majority in both houses of parliament is needed to govern which leaves italy in a political deadlock because the euro to drop and rattled the global markets

raising fears of stalemates will only worsen the already economic situation in the country the professor of economics live because he says none of the parties have a solution to the crisis italy is in the critical need of evena reform to reassure the markets and i don't see it in the program that the center left gave or that the green addressed so the problem is that they're addressing some parts corruptions and honesty but they're not addressing the konami key issues the way they should be there's going to be clear worry of over default what partial default and i would have that's why it's something that might scare the markets because italy has two thousand billion euros in there and it's six times bigger than what greece has

and the international economy doesn't have the you know the salvage funds to take care of a problem of this magnitude. coming up for you later this hour a danger on russia's roads and a to. find the wheel by her parents speeding on the highway at more than one hundred kilometers an hour. the british middle class is shrinking and why i think the vision between the haves and the have nots.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you. are welcome to the big picture. mission. critical three. three. three. three. two three. zero three blog video for your media projects free media. the cost of living increases across britain figures show the country's middle class

is shrinking watching at the vision between the rich and poor and with austerity measures set to continue millions of people are having to accept that the life they once seen joy is now out of reach. the story. for a large part of her life liz hoggard has been tapping away at building a life for herself as a freelance journalist she's been part of britain's middle class seeing credit cards pay their mortgages on time and they thrived during being but then came the bust and with the decline of opportunities that were for so long a middle class perk i didn't get a contract we knew because budgets were being cut and so all those little things you have in place you always live slightly on credit you know you go into interest in anticipation get paid quite soon that got much to low incomes coupled with high living costs staking fears of a shrinking middle in britain is backed up in a report by the resolution foundation think tank it looked into what the future

holds the ten million adults in low to middle income households forecast another decade of hardship well unfortunately it's a bit of a grim prospect prices have risen faster than earnings for quite some time now and what that means is that people. simmer about perhaps a little more but they can't buy as much with it a stark example of this is housing a couple of decades ago you've had to save for a couple of years maybe three or four years to get a deposit on a house if you're a low to middle income first time buyer at the moment you're looking at about twenty two years so middle class trimmings like foreign holidays meals out and home improvements are on hold for the time being as lives has found out she's having to sell off possessions to pay for essential is like dental treatment there's a few packing up these quotes. so it's quite emotional at

times and you have a rush of memory and then you think for ten years and probably if there's something really important i can find online has revolutionised but i also think. these books are. my freshman to new ways really inching exhibition catalogues that i bought back in for not very much money just just a normal price and then of course they've become rare as the years go by so in some ways my stocks and shares been sitting on my shelves which i hadn't known about when you look online and i was something that was confronted so there is a sense of well at least i can pay for my newspaper also treating that. you know you have to not be a snob in something you cannot make times it can be hard to keep up the parents says that's why schemes like the one run by the store here in the that's a proving so popular you bring along a designer clothes need to fix things at the credit which could be in the store.

but it was a bit of a structure i think where the first person to actually combine the dress exchange element with the charity. and introducing the exchange about your system rather than buying stock in. that kind of give and take on them as more and more families look for ways to make their money go further the government's being warned that without shared growth britain risks becoming a country of two halves the rich getting richer and the middle classes increasingly losing out meanwhile lives in a generation like a facing up to the reality that the britain's middle class is the next chapter is looking pretty bleak. arcee london. russia and the u.s. will work together to urge the warring sides in the syrian conflict towards dialogue that's going to foreign minister sergei lavrov the newly appointed

secretary of state john kerry and top diplomats met for the first time and then. kerry also discussed by natural relations and need to keep trying to result differences over child adoption and the u.s. missile defense shield in europe and while america remains reluctant to on the syrian rebels washington has been providing opposition with key political and non-lethal support also historian jonah horn and is the rebels will not and to talks with damascus is on the same joy such foreign backing. in the united states the washington the ministration believes that mr all assad is one is way out it reminds me of the last stages of the conflict in libya in two thousand and eleven when the opposition refused to negotiate with mr gadhafi because they thought he was on his way out as washington and the saudis see it they won't be able to remove mr all assad from power forcibly everyone knows that the locomotive behind the

opposition is al nusra front which in gauges and terrorist tactics and has no need or no desire for elections since they plan to shoot their way into power obviously washington is rather complacent about the participation in the syrian conflict of al bruce refract so-called al-qaeda in iraq and their terrorist means including car bombings that killed women children and senior citizens just a few days ago just as they are very complacent about the rise of so-called islamic fundamentalism in north africa as a result of the overthrow of mr gadhafi they either unwittingly or wittingly or pushing those forces into power in damascus. well some other news for around the world this hour a car bomb killed seven people in. the attack in kadar was carried out by islamist militants and so it is believed to have been a military checkpoint run by

a torah group it was originally allied with it is the mists when they seize control of northern mali last year but later fell out with them before backing the french that offensive to drive been out. has suspended all hot air balloon flights mira nair optional nineteen people died in a crash on tuesday that tourists from britain france japan hungary in hong kong were among those killed to have been exploded in mid-air the fourth one in three hundred meters apart it survived but it's certainly critical condition. secrets behind the life and death of sake of barra have always stood up curiosity worldwide and later today r.t. will give you a unique chance to hear from the commandant whose daughter is a taste of what's coming up. first of all you should know my mother she comes from a rural area and village folk in cuba like anywhere else or summers are very sensitive about their romantic experiences they are very tight lipped about these

things and she was brought up in that culture she's always been like that that said she was overwhelmingly in love with me it was an incredibly beautiful love story and it's one of the things that make me feel so special not because i'm the daughter of a great man now i feel special because i'm the daughter of a man and a woman who we are dearly in love with each other and i'm the product of their life that's what makes me so. the recent health scandal in israel is causing outrage among human rights groups it was revealed last month authorities gave female if europe in migrants birth control injections often without their knowledge or consent with other warnings of a serious legal backlash as artie's up slayer discovered but jem'hadar horror when i first arrived at the grand transit camp i got pregnant and i gave birth he

told me if you don't take the shot we won't give you a ticket so i took the shot but i didn't know that it would prevent pregnancies i didn't know. but more and more israeli women were becoming suspicious like one who runs a youth center in an ethiopian neighborhood in four years only one child was born here and the alarming statistic in a community where family wealth is countered by the number of children and where masha figures show that the birth rate among ethiopian women in israel has dropped by fifty percent and the mothers of the chemical family or hard of all i believe a few of the organizations who were responsible for bringing in the open immigrants to israel decided to administer a contraceptive to them we don't know who gave the instruction but we do know from what we were told that this treatment began in a failed here. and it continued in israel where every three months immigrant ethiopian woman received a shot of the controversial depôt provera contraceptive drug but now that we said

we wouldn't take the shot they said then you can see me great you won't get assistance or medical care and if so we wouldn't be able to leave so we were scared we didn't know how things worked in a different country although legal the american food and drug administration has warned that the side effects of this drug could be irreversible you must understand this was not normal contraception we're talking about contraception that has significant medical and mental effects irregular cycles vaginal bleeding osteoporosis alongside mental side effects like depression mood swings wage and more so this is contraception which is not recommended for most women and in fact most women in israel do not use it but two thirds of ethiopian women have been taking it without being informed that they don't have to and now for the first time an israeli official has admitted or thora teeth have been administering a to them in january this year the director general of the health ministry ordered

all gynecologists working for a with the health maintenance organizations not to a new any deeper prevail or prescriptions for women originating from ethiopia or for any other woman for whom there is. concern that they do not fully understand the implications of the treatment critics say it stinks of racism and think. this is wrong that they don't want poor of children who can see a lot of from the west through an organization both going to kill all in other country logo and without any given that all their property their. very have. very proud of that but the legal backlash is beginning and while nervous about coming forward human rights groups are encouraging ethiopian women to sue for damages so far no one's taken responsibility organizations involved in the immigration of ethiopians to israel are all blaming each other they difference is that they offered several different types of contraceptives to ethiopian women and

that all of them participated voluntarily in family planning policy r.t. tel aviv. driving on russia's roads combinatorics li difficult times a treacherous task but imagine if there were children behind the wheel. go to at least one hundred your mother is filming here in. an eight year old drive in a car my friend last year would have fainted if she saw this. object will posted on social networks. credible but you didn't miss here is an eight year old girl driving an audi its one hundred kilometers per hour with a reckless decision to let her do that wasn't enough and you know you can actually hear the father encouraging her to hit the gas pedal to foster her parents said they posted a video online to show off their daughter's driving skills but their actions were condemned by outraged web users meanwhile fed up with new drivers who refused to

give him right away a bus driver called alexa has developed a very uncompromising response if any car gets in his way he immediately punishes the offender by running them from behind just a couple of the examples of the brutal justice from his dashboard camera and despite having already racked up more than one hundred traffic accidents as amazingly just to keep his job these are just a couple of strange stories from russia's drugs is our existence it was a dot com. also on our web site today a group known as the syrian electronic army has hacked the twitter feed of france's top news agency filled it with what they're calling unbiased content find out more online. last bather and this quote of stormtroopers attempt an assault on one of ukraine's ministries at our web site the motives and the pictures . when next we take you to russia's code of peninsula to discover

the wonders of the legendary northern lights to stay with us here not a. wealthy british style. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max conjure for a no holds barred global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report.